Escape the Darkness
by SonicFox23
Summary: There have been mysterious disappearances happening on the edges of the Lylat System. A strange shadow seems to be the source of the problem. Once again, it's up the StarFox team to find the missing people and solve the mystery of......The Darkness!
1. Prologue

_Team StarFox in ..._

**Escape the Darkness**

Prologue

Somewhere deep under the surface of the Aparoid homeworld, a lone aerial fighter hovered silently into a tunnel. In the cockpit, the pilot broadcasted a signal to all open channels.

"Leon...Panther...do you copy? Over."

After a few seconds of static, a voice came through the radio.

"Yeah...Wolf, this is Leon...send me coordinates. I'll relay them to Panther and we'll meet up with you. Over."

Wolf pushed a few buttons on the dash and, several moments later, two other ships, identical to the one Wolf was piloting, glided up to next to him.

"Well now," said Panther, "it appears that we are all here."

"Yeah." replied Leon, "Let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."

"Alright everyone," said Wolf, "follow me."

With that, the three fighters sped through tunnel after tunnel, following their on-board GPS. Sometime later, Wolf began to notice something rather strange.

"Hang on, guys," he said, as he slowed his team to a halt, "Has anyone else noticed that these passageways have been getting darker?"

"Yes, I have." came Panther's reply. It had grown so dark that Wolf couldn't see his teammates' ships. "It is most unusual, don't you think?" Panther continued.

"Hey, guys?" came Leon's voice, "I think that we should..." He was abruptly cut off as his speech was replaced with garbled static.

"Leon!" exclaimed Wolf, "Come in...Leon, do you read me!"

By this time, Wolf realized that the strange shadow of darkness had completely engulfed his ship. Another worried voice came through his radio.

"Boss!" said Panther, "Boss, con you..."

"Panther!!" yelled Wolf as Panther's voice became static as well.

Wolf's anxiety was steadily rising. He became aware that the darkness was now seeping into his cockpit.

"What is this!!!!" he yelled in distress. Wolf, found that his arms and legs could no longer move. All he could do gasp one last word into his comm link..."help!"...before the darkness overtook him.


	2. Six Months After

_Escape the Darkness_...

**Chapter 1**

"Damn...You beat me again!'

Falco threw down his controller in contempt. His opponent smiled as he got up and shut down the game system.

"Aw, cheer up, Falco," said Fox as he sat back down and switched the television over to cable, "At least you don't fly like that in real life."

Team StarFox was taking a well earned break at their headquarters in Corneria City. Fox McCloud, the team leader, and his second in command, Falco Lombardi, had just finished playing their latest video game, _StarFox: Assault_. The game was accurately based on their most recent mission to suppress the Aparoid invasion. The mission had been a stressful one, but in the long run it had brought the team closer together. However, the devastation was very wide-spread. For instance, the team had almost lost their oldest member, Peppy Hare, when he sacrificed the Great Fox to give the team a clear shot at the Aparoid queen. StarFox's oldest rival, Team StarWolf, had been declared missing in action after using themselves as decoys to lead an Aparoid swarm away so the StarFox team could pass. Worst of all, Corneria City had been ravaged by a massive Aparoid armada. During that attack, General Pepper had been badly wounded when his flagship fell under control of the Aparoids. He survived, but ever since then he had been confined to bed rest.

However, all those hardships were behind them now. Corneria City was under heavy reconstruction. Team StarFox had tried to help with the rebuilding, but the head of the Reconstruction team had insisted that they go home and relax. So, here they were. At the moment, Krystal was in the kitchen preparing lunch for the team. It had been so obvious to everyone as soon as they had met her that there was something special between her and Fox. However, it had not become official until after they had returned to HQ. As soon as they had gotten home, Fox proposed to Krystal right on the spot. Krystal had graciously agreed and they had been engaged ever since.

The last member of the team, Slippy Toad, was presently in the garage tinkering with ROB 64, the team's maintenance robot. Slippy built ROB his first day as a mechanic for the Cornerian Air Force (CAF). Fox, who at the time was building a team to avenge his father's death, took an interest in Slippy and his handiwork. Over the years, Slippy has proved worthy of his position in the StarFox team through his various inventions.

After his exploits on the Aparoid mission, Peppy Hare was asked to step for General Pepper. Peppy accepted the job, and took the reigns as General of the Cornerian Air Force.

And so, that brings us back to StarFox HQ. Krystal appeared in the doorway to announce that lunch was ready. "Alright!!" exclaimed Falco, "I'm starving!"

"You're always starving" replied Fox.

Falco gave him a smirk as he bounded through the kitchen door. Fox walked across the room and banged on the garage door.

"Slippy, lunch is ready." he called through the closed door.

Seconds later, after a series of metallic banging and scraping, the door opened and Slippy stumbled out. "Thanks, Fox" he said as he disappeared again behind the kitchen door.

"No problem!" chuckled Fox as he followed Slippy into the kitchen.

* * *

Later that evening, everyone was in the living room. Krystal was snuggled up next to Fox on the couch, Falco was sitting in his armchair reading the _Cornerian Evening Post_, and Slippy was lying on the floor watching the television. Just then, the program was interrupted by a news broadcast.

"Hey!" protested Slippy.

"Shh...quiet a minute" said Fox. Falco put down his newspaper to watch.

"...breaking news update." reported the news anchor, "We here at WCTV have just been informed that three modified Cornerian space fighters have been discovered, abandoned, floating in Sector 6, near the remains of the Aparoid home-world. It has been confirmed that these ships are the property of the notorious StarWolf team. A search is underway to find the missing pilots. If you have any information that may help officials in their search please call the number on your screen. We now join the following program, already in progress..."

Everyone in the room was silent. Slippy even turned off his television show.

"I can't believe it..." said Fox. Wolf O' Donnell was Fox's oldest rival. However, despite their constant dog-fighting, they had worked together in the past to help save the galaxy.

"Come on, Fox." said Falco, "you don't think that StarWolf could actually be defeated by a bunch of measly Aparoids, do you?"

"Falco's right," said Krystal as she wrapped her arms around Fox, "I'm sure Wolf is still alive."

"You're probably right." replied Fox.

"You know..." said Falco. A mischievous grin had spread across his face.

"What's the matter?" asked Fox.

"Well...I was just thinking..." Falco replied, "We could always go investigate, ourselves."

"I don't know" started Fox.

"Aw, come on, Fox!" Slippy cut him off, "There's _nothing _to do around here! We can't help with construction...there are no new missions...so let's go!"

"It would be a welcome change of pace," added Krystal, "We haven't had a mission in nearly six months."

Fox looked around at the three eager faces of his teammates. "Well...if you all feel that strongly...I suppose we could"

"YES!!" exclaimed Slippy, effectively cutting Fox's speech short again. He jumped up and bolted to the garage, where he immediately started packing all of his tools and gadgets.

"I'll start securing some provisions on board the _Great Fox II_" said Krystal.

"Awesome!" said Falco, excited, "Fox and I will go get mission clearance from Peppy!"

"Alright, team!" said Fox, starting to get caught up in the excitement of a new mission with the rest of his teammates. "Let's go!"


	3. Departure in the Shadows

_Escape the Darkness..._

Chapter 2

"No"

"Aw, come on..."

"NO"

"But..."

"Absolutely NOT!"

Fox and Falco had arrived at the CAF HQ less than half an hour ago, and Falco was already arguing with General Peppy. "_Just like old times_" Fox thought to himself.

"Come on, Peppy." pleaded Falco.

Peppy turned toward Fox and said, "Will you please try to talk some sense into him."

"Peppy, look…" started Fox.

"Oh, not you too!" Peppy cut him off. "I thought that you of all people would be able to see that this little 'mission' of yours would be suicide!"

"Well, personally, I don't see what the big deal is!" snapped Falco.

At this, Peppy walked behind his desk and dug through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a holo-disk and dusted it off. Then he loaded it into the holo-disk player on his desk.

"Hopefully this will change your minds" he said.

Peppy pressed a button on his desk and the disk began to play. At first, the crackle of static filled the room. Then, Fox could make out voices. He recognized the first voice immediately.

"Hey, that's Wolf!" he blurted out.

Peppy shushed him, "Keep listening."

Fox then heard Leon Powalski, Wolf's second in command, speak out. "Guys...I think we should...", then nothing but static.

"What happened?" asked Falco.

"We don't know." replied Peppy flatly.

The recording continued. Soon, Fox heard Panther Caruso dissapear in the same manner as Leon. Then Wolf began to stuggle against an unseen enemy. Finally, with one last 'Help!' from Wolf, the recording ended.

"Those were the last known radio transmissions from Wolf's ship." Peppy said, breaking the eerie silence, "Wolf and his team have seemed to just slip out of existance".

Peppy then turned to Falco. "Well," he said. "Still want to go on this suicide mission?"

Fox could see from Falco's expression what was coming. "Well, if you ask me," said Falco, "This is even more reason to go investigate!"

"You are impossible!" yelled Peppy in exasperation.

"Oh come on!" continued Falco. "Think about it! Whatever happened to StarWolf could just as easily happen to other people on other planets. What if whatever or _who_ever attacked Wolf's team decides to pay Corneria a visit?"

"Then we will just have to deal with it when it gets here." replied Peppy.

"That's crazy!" snapped Falco. "By then, it'll be _way_ too late!"

"Falco does have a point here, Peppy," Fox tried to reason with the General. "You know as well as I do how fast an unprepared planet can fall to invaders"

Peppy shook his head. He went to his desk, sat down in the chair behind it, and folded his hands on the desktop. Then he heaved a deep sigh before saying,

"I'm sorry, Fox. But as temporary General of the Cornerian Air Force and your friend, I just can't let you do this."

* * *

Later that evening, the team was in the living room again. Everthing had already been packed and loaded onto the _Great Fox II_.

"I'm sorry," said Falco, impatiently pacing back and forth in front of the large parlor window, "but I won't be able to sleep at night until I know what's out there and kick it's butt!" He shook his fist angrily at the sunset.

Fox stood up from the couch and walked over to the window. He stood there a few silent moments before turning and facing his friends with a detemined look on his face.

"Well then, I guess there's only one thing we can do." he said.

"And, that is...?" prompted Falco.

Fox smiled. "We sneak out!"

* * *

The sun had set behind the horizen and night had descended upon Corneria City. Construction was done for the day and the streets were empty...

...Well, almost empty.

About two blocks from the CAF hangar, four shadows could be seen flitting from building to building. A few minutes later, the shadows came to a stop in the bushes across the street from the hangar. The lead shadow kneeled down and picked up a rock from the ground.

"On my mark..." he said.

"Wait, Fox...what are?" came a voice from the back of the group.

"Not now, Slippy" said Fox. He carefully peered over the top of the bushes. Two guards were flanking the main entrance to the hangar. From the way they were slouching and shuffling their feet, Fox could tell that they would jump at any chance to leave their posts. Fox took advantage of this, and took aim at a metal trash recepticle a little ways down the road. He threw the rock as hard as he could at it and ducked back behind the bushes. A second later he was rewarded with a loud '_CLANG'_ and shouts from the guards as they hurried after the noise.

"Let's go!" said Fox, urgently. With that, the four members of StarFox slid over to the hangar entrance. Fox punched in a few numbers into the keypad on the door. Seconds later, they were safely inside the hangar. Fox heard the guards through the closed door as they returned to their posts.

"Probably just some lousy kids that snuck out."grumbled one of them.

"Man, I can't wait for this shift to be over!" replied the other.

Fox mad his way over to where the rest of his team was gathered in front of the _Great Fox II._ Fox pressed a series of buttons on his wrist communicator. and the hull entrance to the ship began to open as a walkway was lowered to where the team stood waiting.

"Okay guys," said Fox as the walkway landed at his feet, "This is it!"

Krystal walked up to him. and grabbed his arm. "Ooh, this is so exciting! I hope I packed enough supplies" she said.

Fox gave her a reassuring kiss on the cheek. "You did wonderfully." he replied. She beamed at him.

"HEY!" called Falco from the ship's entrance, "If you lovebirds are finished making your nest, I'd like to get going! Come on, already!"

Fox rolled his eyes at him, then followed Krystal up the walkway. The great engines on the starship revved loudly, and the walkway began to retract. Before it closed completely, Fox saw the two guards rush into the hangar.

"Oh crap!" yelled one guard, "Someone's stealing the _Great Fox_! Quick close the hangar doors! Come on! HURRY!" But it was too late. The _Great Fox II_ had already cleared the doors and left the hangar.

"We really need better security" Fox remarked as the _Great Fox II_ rose into the Cornerian night sky. As Fox began to walk through the familiar, yet strangely different, halls of his flagship, he let his thoughts wander.

_I can't believe that it only took the CAF a year to build this ship! It doesn't seem that long ago that the original Great Fox, my father's ship, was destroyed by those Aparoids. If it hadn't been for Peppy, we would have never been to reach the queen and wipe out those filthy creatures for good. If he hadn't crashed what was left of the ship through the core's energy shield, we would still be fighting Aparoids outside their homeworld. I'm glad that General Pepper awarded him the Cornerian Medal of Honor...he really does deserve it..._

Fox broke from his thoughts as he realized that he was already at the bridge. He pressed a button that was next to the bridge door. It slid open and Fox walked into the room. He took his place in the captain's chair that was located in between where Krystal and Falco were seated.

"How are we looking?" asked Fox.

"All systems are in working order, Fox!" chimed Slippy from the system and maitenence board below. "We're about to clear the atmosphere."

"Awesome!" said Fox. "Now we just have to worry about getting clearence for hyperspace."

"Hehe...not a problem!" said Falco, smugly. He reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a holo-disk. "I swiped the data from the intergalactic highway database. All we have to do is upload this into the _Great Fox_." He gave the disk to ROB.

"Upload that into our into our mainframe." Falco told the robot.

"Affirmative" said ROB, "Uploading now"

After a few minutes, Slippy typed a few commands into the ships computer. A screen popped up on the large monitor in at the front of the bridge. "Sweet!" said Slippy after analyzing the screen. "With this program, we'll be updated every time a new clearence code is given. Not only that, but we'll also know what the next code the CAF will use. We have complete control of the Cornerian Intergalactic Highway System!"

"Nice work, Falco." Fox, "However, you do know that we'll have to give this back when return to Corneria."

"Yeah, yeah." grumbled Falco. "But let's have some fun with it while we can!"

The _Great Fox II_ had now cleared the atmosphere and was making its way farther into space. Corneria was getting steadily smaller as team StarFox team took their first steps toward solving the mystery behind StarWolf's dissapearance.


	4. Decisions, Distress, and a Destination

_Escape the Darkness..._

Chapter 3

The sun rose over the hills and splashed light on the luscious plains of Thorntail Hollow. The thorntails were sleeping lazily in the sun's warmth. The royal family of Earthwalkers had pent the night in the hollow and, presently, King Tricky awoke. He walked into the stream and let the cool water wake his senses. Feeling refreshed, Tricky thought that he would pay a visit to the Warpstone today. However, the hollow suddenly began to get darker. Alarmed at the sudden change, Tricky looked up at the sky and was taken aback. An enormous shadow had engulfed the sun and was beginning to spread across the sky. Looking back around the hollow, Tricky realized the thorntails were no longer sleeping, but they seemed to be frozen in time. Horrified, Tricky turned his attention back toward the sky, which was now completely black. Tricky could just make out a large shape moving ominously through the darkness, but before he could discern what it was, everything went dark and Tricky slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

It was not long after their departure that Team StarFox was free of Corneria's airspace. The _Great Fox II_ slowly drifted further away from the blue planet as it's passengers argued inside.

"I think the best course of action is to head toward Fortuna," explained Fox, "Then we can set a course to Sauria before heading to the Aparoid homeworld."

The StarFox team had preparing the _Great Fox II _for hyperspace. Presently, they were trying to decide on a flight path.

"Why Fortuna?" argued Falco, "There are plenty of better locations!"

"Oh really?" replied Fox. "Name two that haven't gone to waste or been destroyed by us." Fox held up his hand and started counting off on his fingers. "Fichina…abandoned after the climate control generator went on the fritz; Zoness…all that's left that base is a toxic waste dump; Macbeth…well, we blew that one to pieces years ago…"

"Okay, okay!" Falco cut him off, "I get it. We'll stop at Fortuna."

Satisfied, Fox began to walk back over to his chair to enter the coordinates into the ships navigational system. However, he had barely taken two steps when Krystal gasped in pain and threw her hands up to her forehead. Fox abandoned his current destination and ran to her side.

"Krystal! Are you alright?" he asked, frantically.

Krystal lowered her hands. "Yes, thank you. I'm alright. But someone, somewhere is not."

"What do you mean?" asked Fox

"I just sensed a massive disturbance," replied Krystal, her eyes wide with fear. "Thousands of voices just all cried out to me at once! Then silence. I didn't hear anything."

Worried, Fox asked "Can you pinpoint where it came from?"

"That's what scares me the most," Krystal answered. She had begun to tremble at this point. "The call was so short, and so widespread, that it was impossible for me to locate the origin. But I can be certain of one thing: Someone is in trouble."

Fox held Krystal in his arms to help calm her. "Don't worry" he said calmly, "We won't abandon those in need." Then he turned to the rest of the crew with renewed determination. "Alright, first Wolf and his team disappear and now this," said Fox. "We've no time to waste. We've got to get moving now! Slippy, set a course for Fortuna!"

"I'm on it!" cried Slippy, triumphantly. He began to run to the navigational control unit, and then proceeded to trip over his own feet and fall clumsily on his face.

Stifling a chuckle, Fox said his crew, "Let's roll!"

* * *

Back on Corneria, a meeting of the Lylatian Board of Defense was in session. Peppy Hare sat at the head of the table. To his left sat Bill Grey, representative from Katina and a close friend of Fox. On Peppy's other side was Katt Monroe, head of the reconstruction efforts on Zoness. Sitting next to Bill, was Beltino Toad, who was the Cornerian Research director, and also Slippy's father. Finally seated next to Katt was Peppy's daughter, Lucy Hare, who had been appointed Technical Advisor to the CAF. The Board had assembled to discuss the strange disappearance of Team StarWolf.

"If you ask me," Bill was saying, "I think the galaxy is a lot better off without StarWolf running amok."

"Our personal feelings for StarWolf aside," replied Peppy, "We still need to discover the cause of their disappearance so we can take preventative measures against another similar occurrence."

"I'm with the General on this one," said Katt, "We just finished building the new CAF Outpost on Zoness, and I'll be damned if I let anything happen to all our hard work."

"Well said, Katt. Thank you," said Peppy, relieved to have some support. "I believe that the best course of action at this point would be to…."

Just then, a Cornerian guard burst into the room. He saluted and said, "Sorry to interrupt, General Peppy, sir, but we just received word that the _Great Fox II _has been hijacked and from the main hangar."

"What!?" exclaimed Peppy. _Great, _he thought, _now, on top of everything else, I have to tell Fox that his brand new flagship has been stolen_. "How did this happen?" he demanded.

"We don't know, sir," replied the guard, "Someone must slipped in while the sentries were investigating a disturbance."

Peppy sat down and rubbed his tired eyes. The last thing he needed right now was more stress. "Have you contacted Fox and informed him yet?"

"We've tried, sir," answered the guard, "No one at HQ can seem to get a hold of Fox McCloud or anyone else on his team."

Realization hit the General so fast that he couldn't help but chuckle quietly. "Just like his dad," he said to himself. Then he got and walked across the room to the large window facing the CAF HQ.

"Just be careful, okay" said Peppy.

* * *

"Jump to Hyperspace in T-20 seconds"

The robotic voice rang out over the intercom system of the ship. Fox and Slippy returned to the bridge after making sure that everything was tightly secured in its place. They took their respective seats; Slippy on the far right next to Falco, and Fox in the middle between Falco and Krystal, who was still getting used to the sensation of entering hyperspace. She grabbed Fox's hand as he sat down.

"5...4...3...2...1..."

Then the _Great Fox II_ gave a mighty lurch forward and shot toward Fortuna at light speed. The quest to find Wolf, his team, and the cause of the disappearances had begun.


End file.
